Identification of Booth's body

[Steve]

(12-13-2019 12:56 AM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  As for Leonard Guttridge and Ray Neff, it would take considerable time to list all the misinformation those folks have put out. For openers, the Kate M. Scott sworn statement is a hoax, along with the 1883 will of John Byron Wilkes. A letter attributed to Robert Burns Stewart and written to Elizabeth (Wilkes) Bossom, a daughter of the real John Byron Wilkes in Terre Haute, IN, is nonsense and appears to have an attempted forged signature. A quick look at census records proves there was no Sarah Katherine Scott (by any name), a daughter by Kate M. Scott from an alleged affair with John Wilkes Booth, born in Dec 1865 and left with Samuel Baysinger to raise, who didn't get married until 1867, to another woman than the one supposedly named by Kate M. Scott in her sworn statement, and on, and on. As Ed Steers pointed out there was no Andrew Giles Potter, (nor his brothers Earl and Luther Potter), so things that reference Mr Andrew Potter are a fiction, which includes Andrew Potter as the trustee of the Sarah Katherine Scott inheritance. It also includes the reference to Andrew Potter made in the Robert Burns Stewart letter. Why would Judge Stewart, then Atty Stewart, give an address for a nonexistent man? There were no Potters in the county named in the letter.

I would not use either Leonard Guttridge or Ray Neff as a source for anything without considerable verification from other sources. In a 1977 interview Ray Neff had the mythical Sarah Katherine Scott as the wife of Samuel Baysinger. There was no ancestry.com at that time to make fact checking so much easier.

Samuel Baysinger

in the Indiana, Marriage Index, 1800-1941

Name: Samuel Baysinger
Spouse Name: Lucinda A Wood [Lucinda A (Bruner) Wood]
Marriage Date: 11 Feb 1867
Marriage County: Putnam
***********************
Saml Baysinger

in the 1870 United States Federal Census

Name: Saml Baysinger
[Samuel Baysinger]
Age in 1870: 27
Birth Year: abt 1843
Birthplace: Kentucky
Dwelling Number: 57
Home in 1870: Jackson, Parke, Indiana
Race: White
Gender: Male
Post Office: Mansfield
Occupation: Farmer
Male Citizen over 21: Y
Personal Estate Value: 200
Inferred Spouse: Lucinda Baysinger
Inferred Children: Sylvester Baysinger
Cora A Baysinger
Household Members:
Name Age
Saml Baysinger 27
Lucinda Baysinger 25 [Lucinda A. (Bruner) Wood-Baysinger]
Sylvester Baysinger 6 [Sylvester Wood took the name Sylvester Baysinger after 1880]
Cora A Baysinger 4
*******************
Cora A. Baysinger

in the 1880 United States Federal Census

Name: Cora A. Baysinger
Age: 12
Birth Date: Abt 1868
Birthplace: Indiana
Home in 1880: Jackson, Parke, Indiana, USA
Dwelling Number: 35
Race: White
Gender: Female
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Marital status: Single
Father's name: Samuel Baysinger
Father's Birthplace: Kentucky
Mother's name: Lucinda Baysinger
Mother's Birthplace: Indiana
Occupation: Works In House
Attended School: Yes
Neighbors:
Household Members:
Name Age
Samuel Baysinger 35
Lucinda Baysinger 34
Cora A. Baysinger 12
Francis L. Baysinger 9
Charles E. Baysinger 8
Dora E. Baysinger 5
John M. Baysinger 4
Nora O. V. Baysinger 9/12
Sylvester Wood 14
*****************************
Cora A. Baysinger (possibly Wood) married Harvey A. Ruark and was deceased before 1900, so she couldn't possibly be the daughter that Kate M. Scott claimed to have met in New Orleans in 1906, according to the sworn statement. Also, in the 1910 census Kate shows never having had any children. That's the same year she ostensibly claimed a child, Sarah Katherine Scott (also named in the bogus 1883 John Byron Wilkes of India will) in said sworn statement.

Lucinda Baysinger died in Sep 1900 and Samuel remarried to a widow, Sarah Phoebe (Barnes) Smith-Bush-Baysinger in 1903.

Sarrah P Baysinger

in the 1910 United States Federal Census

Name: Sarrah P Baysinger
Age in 1910: 65
Birth Year: abt 1845
Birthplace: Indiana
Home in 1910: Madison, Putnam, Indiana
Race: White
Gender: Female
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Marital status: Married
Spouse's name: Samuel Baysinger
Father's Birthplace: Kentucky
Mother's Birthplace: Kentucky
Native Tongue: English
Able to Read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Years Married: 7
Number of Children Born: 2
Number of Children Living: 1
Neighbors:
Household Members:
Name Age
Samuel Baysinger 64 [2nd marriage, Lucy died in 1900]
Sarrah P Baysinger 65 [Sarah Phoebe (Barnes) Smith-Bush-Baysinger 3rd marriage]
********************************
According to Neff-Guttridge papers Sarah Katherine Scott b: 8 Dec 1865 was given to a midwife, Sarah, who was to marry Samuel Baysinger shortly and raise Kate's daughter.

"As you know, I have a daughter who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on December 8, 1865. To this day I have never told anyone who the father was nor the circumstances of her birth. While you may know some of the facts you do not know them all nor shall you, nor shall anyone else. Some things are so sacred as to be unmentionable.

As for the payments made to me and my daughter by the law firm of Weaver and Weaver, payments to me stopped a number of years ago and in 1886 when my daughter reached her majority, she received the residue of the annuity. She is happily married and is fully aware of all there is to know. I will not reveal her identity."

"When I visited my daughter in October of 1906 I found that she had talked with cousin John Celestina when she and her husband were in New Orleans. He was health[y] and had a family and was living the life of a gentleman. He had given up the sea after his release and had bought a country home and settled down to the quiet country life."

[From "sworn statement" of Kate M. Scott] Puhhleeeze!

Steve Whitlock (the other Steve)

Steve W.,
I actually did a bunch of research on Neff to help Laurie and Ed Steers for a talk Ed was going to give back in May at the Surratt House conference about Neff and his theories. I've been thinking about making a long post about it here about what I found. I was itching to reveal some of what I found out about Neff when Mr. Griffith was posting, but I didn't want to steal Ed's thunder before his talk. I'll probably make my Neff post in January when I have more time after the holidays.


Here's a link to the Find A Grave page for the Sarah Baysinger you mentioned above:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1941...-baysinger

The surname Baysinger is common in that area of Indiana. The Samuel Baysinger couple you gave the information about just matched Neff's Samuel and Sarah Baysinger by chance. Neff's Baysingers seem to be just as fictional as the Potters. I'll send a copy of the 1977 Neff article you mentioned for Roger to post to the forum.